Greetings Members,

Reflecting on Labor Day and passing the 6-month mark of the COVID pandemic deserves a moment of reflection and review. Thank you for your commitment and service on the front lines during this challenging time. We understand that doing your job puts yourself and the people close to you at risk. Our team understands this and has heard your concerns and feedback. Your WSNA UW Northwest officer team wanted to provide an update on the year and upcoming items that may have an impact on UW Northwest.

Our officers have been working hard advocating for you during the year at multiple bargaining sessions and monthly meetings with UW administration. The recent major issues included: staffing concerns raised by our members (ADOs), 2021 staffing plan, break law adherence, furlough practices, COVID-19, PPE, and schedule patterns vs self-scheduling models. We understand that you and your families are under enough pressure during this pandemic while continuing to serve your community during this vital time of need. Due to this understanding our team has pushed back on the proposed takeaways by UW administrators. We want administration to understand that our members are playing an enormous role in this pandemic and all we ask is that our members and their Contract are RESPECTED and PROTECTED.

We know our members expect our current practices and standards for staffing, PPE, scheduling and breaks to not be decreased or lowered during this time. We feel recent actions by management over the last year lack the respect deserved by our members and have also, unfortunately, failed to protect them as well. Our belief is that any major changes to current practices only be negotiated during bargaining of a new contract that will be scheduled for the spring. The following concerns were raised these matters:

1. Staffing: Our staffing committee team have fought staffing cuts and instead have requested to strengthen staffing plans by traditional staffing tools that include - creating critical care and ED float pools, monthly voluntary on-call shifts, hiring Per Diem staff, hiring contractors, and limiting staff movement on schedules to emergencies only not monthly (seniority and done equitably)
   
   
2. COVID PPE: The WSNA team has requested increased access to higher PPE to CDC standards, improved plans, and continuing training on protection of staff from exposure during routine care, hot zones, and high risk situations (AGP's, Codes). WSNA is also working to insure the hospital is adhering to the PPE requirements put forth by Labor and Industries.
   
   
3. Staff COVID exposure and transparency: Our team has fought hard to receive data on how many of our members have been infected with COVID-19 at work and were saddened to hear that we had the 2nd largest staff outbreak in the state.
   
4. Breaks: WSNA and our team are committed for staff to receive ALL breaks in accordance to Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Washington Administrative Code (WAC), and Labor and Industry standards (L&I). Discussions with management will request tracking late breaks as missed breaks in Kronos to be appropriately compensated. ***Additionally, per WAC/L&I if staff would like to receive a second unpaid meal break (30 minutes unpaid) during a 10 or 12 hour shift we want to support them in receiving it without decreasing your FTE paid weekly***
   
   
5. Scheduling: Thank you for your feedback on our survey about having Set Schedules - we hear you loud and clear. Based on our WSNA survey, over 80% of our members strongly disapproved of moving to a self-scheduling model. This was our team's original position, and we thank you for validating it. We believe that moving to self-scheduling negatively impacts our members' lives in a variety of ways that include financial loss, disruption in child care, creating barriers for advancing education and staff safety. We are strongly opposed to changing scheduling models at this time and advocated for staffing solutions to scheduling that have proven to be effective and used in the past. As a result, the hospital is not implementing self-scheduling at this time.
   
   
6. Furloughs - We have fought to decrease the impact and length of furloughs to staff during bargaining, setting a limit on furlough time and max hours of low census should be a priority for our next contract. Unfortunately, UW has brought us back to the table to negotiate another furlough MOU. This is ongoing at this time and we will be sharing further details when available.

UW Northwest as a hospital has a very high percentage of union participation - roughly 600 WSNA union nurses. We should not feel intimidated or bullied in any way to change our CBA or standards if we do not want to. As we approach the start of negotiations after the first of the year, please reflect on how you will be prepared to take action during bargaining and protect what you would like to keep alive at Northwest.

We look forward to hearing about your priorities for the new contract while still addressing the pressing matters affecting you during this difficult time. Thank you for all that you do and for allowing us to work on your behalf.

In Solidarity,
Josef Mansour WSNA Vice Chair

Message from out-going Chair, Carl Coyle:

It has been a true honor and privilege to serve as your Local Unit Chairperson over the past 9 months. Thank you for entrusting me with your voice. Though we haven’t always found success, I assure you the other officers and I, along with the dedicated reps at WSNA, have pushed as hard as we could to advance your interests, whether by advocating for accommodations and protections as COVID ramped up, mitigating as best we could the fallout from furloughs, or relentlessly lobbying for safe, evidence-based staffing as we continue to do today.

In my short time as Chair, what has impressed me most about our membership has been the willingness of individuals to stand up and be counted. There are nurses in our ranks who routinely sacrifice for each of us, in ways big and small. They hold management accountable for staffing shortfalls by filing ADO’s, they document missed breaks, and some even confront management face to face in committee. Let them know you have their backs by doing your part! Something as simple as completing a survey or just talking to your peers about their needs is meaningful. Information is extremely potent in the context of labor relations! Nothing gets done without a large volume of documented evidence. If you aren’t currently involved in our union, find a way to join the effort to make your workplace the best it can be. You will not be alone, and you won’t regret it! There is a lot of work to do, and the more we can share the burden, the quicker we can affect change and the better aligned that change will be with your needs.

Thanks,

Carl

If you have questions or concerns about this message, please reach out to one of your local unit officers or contact WSNA Nurse Representative Sara Frey at sfrey@wsna.org.